Change of heart
- Thread starter Lyric
- Start date
Range Rovers/Land Rover
The honest truth and no secret. They may be good vehicles offroad, etc but reliability is crap. Reliability is very bad. So if you dont mind spending a lots of money on repairs, like my rich cousin who owns one. He has spent close to 5-6K on repairs in the last 2-3 years, crazy. But money is not a problem for him.
Range Rover are for those who can afford it. Sure you will get a few odd stories where reliabilty has been great, but the majority are a money pitt.
The honest truth and no secret. They may be good vehicles offroad, etc but reliability is crap. Reliability is very bad. So if you dont mind spending a lots of money on repairs, like my rich cousin who owns one. He has spent close to 5-6K on repairs in the last 2-3 years, crazy. But money is not a problem for him.
Range Rover are for those who can afford it. Sure you will get a few odd stories where reliabilty has been great, but the majority are a money pitt.
My experience working on a Land Rover is that they all leak like sieves, from the '03-'08 models I got. I thought it was just that we were getting them used, but a guy tech who worked at Land Rover for a stint told me they have a lot of problems with those vehicles.
As for the Aluminum construction, its selective. Its still a steel frame, some panels and parts are aluminum; this was shuffled around depending on year and model. They don't even make them body on frame anymore do they?
Land Rover borrows heavily from Jaguar and BMW for powerplants and technology; BMW is just... I swear i'm gonna get PTSD with all problems those cars have. Jaguar has never been much better, leaky and rather shaky on reliability.
I'm not saying Land Rovers are the worst things on the planet (I personally want an old school or newer Defender myself,) but they are a far cry from "reliable." I'm glad you have had good luck with your previous vehicles, but my experience is when they start going bad you need to spend lots of money on parts, labor, and if you're lucky you don't have to have it outsourced to other shops for programming and factory tools.
Europeans have good ideas, but they load their cars up with so much electronic crap and over engineer things to a ridiculous degree that its bound to cause issues! One of the things I love about the 4th Gen is that its on the border of that technology/mechanical barrier. Its got techno gizmos and electronically controlled bits that do occasionally fail or go wonky, but thinks like my mechanical seat adjustments, mechanical linkage to open my door locks and actually open the door, parking brake; those all make me feel like the vehicle isn't going to fritz out and lock me in the car with no way out other than the window. (cough*BMW*cough)
Toyota, much like other manufacturers is follow the German/European formula of building vehicles which means we're going to see A LOT of reliability issues in modules, electronically controlled systems, engine controls, ect and if the extremeists get their way, we'll be using tin only solder in aeronautics and automotive industries which will greatly increase electronics failures. Read up on Tin Whiskers if you wanna learn more.
Sorry for dragging on for a bit, basically all I am saying is that the T120 Platform (4Runner, FJCR, Tacoma, ect) is a very stout and reliable platform in general compared to Land Rover's. BUT, the Land Rovers offer a lot more comforts and technology that make them just as capable if not a little more capable out of the box than the 4Runner; if their working properly. Many people on this forum do a lot of offroading in their 4Runners and honestly I'd worry about a Land Rover with their air bags, hydraulically adjusted shocks that use a secondary fluid pump off the engine, and other bits that if damaged on the trail spell disaster.
Its your choice in the end and I wish you the best of luck either way, I'm not trying to sell you a 4Runner or turn you away from a Land Rover. I'm just imparting my experience and knowledge of these vehicles. Its up to you to decide what vehicle better suits your needs and wants, a lot of people seem to forget that when buying a car or truck. (i.e. buying a V8 and then getting upset because it drains gas)
Best of luck to you!
You make very good points here and I will take this and everyone else's advice into consideration. I know owning one can be a hit and miss which sucks.
BTW Land Rover and Jaguar are the same company currently owned by Tata motors, previous to that was Ford, BMW and so on. Also in the last decade or so Jaguar has been rated a reliable car and the X-Type is around the top 20 or so. The S-Type was rated pretty well too.
Also the Defender 110 would be my favorite of all Land Rovers and even the Defender 90 but I would prefer the 110. But of course since they are no longer sold in the US their prices have jumped through the roof. I would take a new or used one. Love them.
Last edited:
scottydoo79
New member
I'm on my 4th 4runner and I've had 3 disco's. The last disco being a 03. The 4.6 was a huge improvement in the power department. Still wondering though If that department even exists at rover. :lmao: My rover had comparable miles and i had to do head gaskets rebuild the transfer case. The passenger power seat stopped working, lights filled with water the back door had to be constantly adjusted and with nothing wrong with it i still managed to barely sell it for $6500. It was just like the se7 that you have a link to same color, wheels, but minus the rack and mine had a clean title. oh and dont forget fuel pumps, I went through a few of those. Another deciding factor for never wanting another rover is that I enjoy customizing and actually having $ to spend on cool stuff vs. the rover that took all my $ just to keep it on the road. But lessons are best learned the hard way. It took me 3x's but never again. So my closing statement is you would have to pry my 4runner out of my cold dead hands:flipoff: Lol. We'll probably see you back here soon. :hello:
Last edited:
scottydoo79
New member
I too second the LC recommendation.
I do love Land Cruisers a lot. My favorite model would probably be the 80 Series. Although I do like the 100 Series and of course love the FJ40 and a like.
I almost bought a Mercedes G Wagon G500 back about 4 months ago. It had 120,000 miles and it was an 03' and the price was $21,000. That thing was beyond amazing and sometimes I wish I never passed it up. Although it would probably had never got to see even a gravel dirt driveway. lol. The G Wagon is probably one of the best if not the best vehicles made for off road and anything. It was amazing and I was in lust big time. lol
I almost bought a Mercedes G Wagon G500 back about 4 months ago. It had 120,000 miles and it was an 03' and the price was $21,000. That thing was beyond amazing and sometimes I wish I never passed it up. Although it would probably had never got to see even a gravel dirt driveway. lol. The G Wagon is probably one of the best if not the best vehicles made for off road and anything. It was amazing and I was in lust big time. lol
